I read Willo's posts with a mixture of admiration and bewilderment..

Surely he should stand for Parliament as his obfuscation qualifies him to be a spokesman capable of avoiding a straight answer to a simple question.

Regardless, he is a stalwart of HOL and must be treasured. He surely also holds the record for number of posts on any given day.

Man and boy Palace since my first game in 1948 sitting on my dad's shoulders

Interview with Danny Murphy 2 years ago :

MURPHY: It’s a bit strange to be congratulating someone for their age! But the way I look at it, you’ve just overtaken Sir Alex Ferguson and will equal Sir Bobby next week. That’s quite some company to keep. There must be some pride there.

HODGSON: I can’t compare my record with those guys but, yes, I am proud I’ve been able to carry on and most importantly retain the love, passion and enthusiasm for the game.

Old, Ungifted and White

I think most of us agree on the fact that investment in the squad is required.

I also agree that while the club seemingly has nothing other than a short term view in respect of the first team, it doesn't make sense to have a manager of Roy's age and who is on a 12 month contact, to oversee a job that's going to take 2/3 transfer windows at least.

As for the '' underperforming '' bit, that is where the Pro and Anti Roy factions differ.

Old, Ungifted and White

If you think we are going down, then I cant see how you have confidence in him to meet his minimum expectation this season.

As for performance,

2 goals in our last 7 games.
2 wins in our last 12 games (against 19th with 10men and 20th place sides).
35 points in 2020.

23 points looks ok, but the more sensible Hodgson supporters realise that this has got to change before it's too late.

Again, we have the 15th most expensively assembled squad and 9th highest wage bill. We should be looking at between 11th and 13th as acceptable.

I fear Hodgson could almost take Palace down to the Conference and Willo would still be acclaiming his reputation in Scandinavia and the high esteem in which he is held internationally.
At least he doesn’t descend to mentioning that he was born in Croydon as a reason for him to retain the job I suppose.
For me, I don’t care how a manager is historically viewed in Scandinavia but am concerned with sustained poor performance over a 12 month period.
Another case of having to agree to disagree.

With the greatest of respect, I never singled out Scandinavia and my comments pertained to his overall football management career which of course has seen him take up the 'Reins' at clubs globally not forgetting that he also managed at an International level.

Apropos "Poor performance", in the final analysis he has met his objectives of keeping the club in the PL and perhaps with 15 players about to reach 30 or in their 30s, a degredation in performance overall is to be expected with the passage of time.